Welcome to Gluten-Free Wednesdays (GFW), the weekly blog carnival that I co-host with my friends Linda of The Gluten-Free Homemaker and Lynn of Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures. Summer is whizzing by! I don’t know about you, but I’ve already started seeing Back-to- School sales. I’ll admit it. When I was a teacher, I used to hate those early ads and the questions “When do you go back to school?” I was always ready to go back and greet my new class when it was time, but I wanted to enjoy my summer FULLY first! I’m betting that there are many of you—teachers, parents, students—who feel the same way.

Our GFW event is all about gluten-free food ideas and summer is all about enjoying everything that summer means: county fairs, pool time, porch time, camping, and all the delightful food that goes with those activities! You’ll see some of those types of recipes in the highlights below and many more via the linky at the bottom of the post. If you’re a blogger linking up, please know that your post will appear on all three of our blogs via the linky.

My Highlights from gfe and All Gluten-Free Desserts

~ On gfe:

Gluten-Free EXTREME (GFE) “Library Clean-out” Cookbook Giveaway #2 ~ Yes, I’m continuing to clean out my support group library. This week’s giveaway has as much or more variety as the first one and ends, Thursday, July 24, at midnight. Click the link above to visit the post and tell me which books you’d like to win. Please stay tuned for at least one more of these Library Clean-Out giveaways.

~ On All Gluten-Free Desserts:

~ No-Bake Caramel Apple Pie CheesecakesfromSimply Gourmet ~ Which part of this recipe makes you the happiest? The “no-bake” factor, the caramel factor, the apple pie factor, or the cheesecake factor? It’s hard to decide, isn’t? Such a terrific summer dessert!

~ 6 Stunning Gluten-Free Cakes—Raw, Vegan, and Paleo! from Gluten-Free Vegan Love ~ These recipes pretty much speak for themselves via Audrey’s gorgeous photos, but I’ll add a note. If you’re intimidated by raw desserts, please don’t be. The main thing you need to know about them is that they are also no-bake and delicious, in addition to fitting into the other specialty categories I mentioned. So many “win’s” with these recipes!

The Most Popular Post on Gluten-Free Wednesdays Last Week

~ Gluten-Free Blueberry Pound Cake from Simply 123 Allergy Free~ Yes, all our recipes are gluten free for our GFW event, but when you find a great gluten-free pound cake, it’s worth special attention! Obviously you all agree as you clicked on this recipe the most. Phyllis said that her husband thought she’d picked this cake up at Starbucks. She added: “This is not only better than the Starbucks version but the best gluten free pound cake I have ever had!”

~ My GFW Post “Picks” from Last Week

~ Healthier Chocolate-Covered Strawberries from Living Free ~ I love the simple method that Aubree used to make her chocolate-covered strawberries healthier. I also love the way they look barely dipped!

~ Paleo (Grain-Free) Funnel Cake from Predominantly Paleo ~ As much as I loved eating funnel cake at our county fair when I was growing up, funnel cake did not love me. Those “events”—an all-inclusive word in this case—were another indicator that gluten was not my friend. If only I’d had some of these grain-free paleo Funnel Cakes of Jennifer’s, I could have stayed longer at the county fair and enjoyed funnel cake and the fair itself much more. By the way, Jennifer really knows how to enjoy summer. She has partnered with Vivian of The Real Food Guide to create We Can All Scream for Ice Cream, an ebook that gives you terrific ice cream recipes free of gluten, grain, top 8 allergens, and more. But, of course, they’re all scream-worthy ice cream recipes! Oh, and BONUS … you don’t even need an ice cream maker to make these recipes!

The Carnival

~ Leave a link back to this blog or one of the co-hosts in your post. We do not highlight or share any recipes that do not link back to the specific event in the post. (If you’ve never linked up to a carnival before, you can see how I like to link back in the last line of my gfe post(s) above.)

~ We really appreciate you joining in!

Note: Linking up indicates you are giving permission for us to share your submitted photo and your link via social media or in next week’s post if it is selected as the most popular post for the week or featured as a highlight.

Two is great, Tia! We don’t currently have any limits on how many can be submitted. Only if too many being linked up happens and becomes a problem will we set a limit. 😉 So far, it’s not been an issue. We love lots of delicious choices so thank you so much for sharing two more great recipes of yours! 🙂

Vicky–I’m wondering how hot is “hot” for you all! 😉 Those coconut cream popsicles look and sound fantastic. Although calling them lollies sounds good, too. Now I’m wondering what you all call what we call lollipops. You are always educating me!

You’re welcome, dear! 21 degrees C would probably have me in long sleeves. 26 degrees would be nice though. 😉 We’ve had some great weather the last few days with cool evenings that are great for sleeping. 🙂

Thanks so much for highlighting the chocolate covered strawberry recipe, Shirley!

Re: the point you mentioned about them hardly being dipped – I think that ended up being one of my favorite parts! The typical chocolate dipped strawberry is sort of odd – a hard to bite exterior and soft inside… I always ended up with way too much chocolate in my mouth when the strawberry was long gone… so yeah, we were pretty excited about how well this new approach worked for us 🙂 ~Aubree

Thanks for the lovely party this week. I’m seeing so many yummy things already! This week I’m sharing my super easy Gluten-Free Vegan Marshmallow Chocolate Cups recipe. I’ll try to come back and also link up the pineapple spoon cake that was inspired by the gfe “crustless” pie recipe. Needless to say, it deserves a mention on here 🙂 , but my site is just undergoing some maintenance and I’d love to see it back in proper order first.

Thanks for making it such a great party each week, Audrey! I always love your recipes. Marshmallows and chocolate are one of those matches made in heaven. 😉 Will look forward to your pineapple spoon cake this week, hopefully. Best of luck on your site work! 🙂

About Shirley

Gluten free since June 2003, my passion is educating folks on gluten issues (celiac and more) and showing how eating gluten free can be easy if you focus on "real" foods versus processed and specialty foods.Read more...

New Ice Cream Ebook That's Perfect for Summer!

We Can All Scream for Ice Cream

What an amazing new book of ice cream recipes from Jennifer of Predominantly Paleo and Vivian of The Real Food Guide! Gluten free and top 8 allergen-free, plus much "more free." Check it out and see if this is the one that's right for you!